Tule River Tribe

In 2015, Tribal Councilmember Kenneth McDarment invited the WATER Institute to consult with the Tule River Tribe about their interest in returning beavers to their ancestral homelands on the Tule River Reservation. In 2020 the US Fish and Wildlife Service Tribal Wildlife Grants program funded the Tule River Beaver Project to carry out a beaver and meadow restoration project. The WATER Institute, Swift Water Design, and US Forest Service Southwest Research Station partners were invited to support the Tribe in using beaver and process-based restoration to restore ecological function to various meadows, creeks, and the South Fork Tule River. This collaboration has successfully been implemented in three phases from 2021-2023. 

The Tribe welcomed seven beavers into the South Fork Tule River watershed on June 12, 2024 as part of a historic beaver reintroduction effort in partnership with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). It has been a privilege to work alongside the Tribe, and we were honored to have WATER Institute Co-Director Kate Lundquist and our close collaborator, Kevin Swift of Swift Water Design, present for the release. CDFW wildlife biologists expect to eventually see better habitat conditions for several endangered amphibian and riparian-obligate bird species, including foothill and southern mountain yellow-legged frogs, western pond turtles, least Bell’s vireos, and southwestern willow flycatchers.